NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

Updated Nov. 5, 2021 1:40 p.m. ET

Associated Press

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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Despite false claims, LA mayor who tested positive for COVID had not received booster shot

CLAIM: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has received three COVID-19 vaccine doses but still tested positive for the virus.

THE FACTS: The day after Garcetti

— Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

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No, COVID-19 vaccines don’t cause HIV, AIDS or cancer

CLAIM: Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine shot makes you more likely to get AIDS or cancer.

THE FACTS: The claim is false. On October 25, Facebook and Instagram removed a live video published by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. In the video

— Associated Press writer Terrence Fraser in New York contributed this report.

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Posts use old photo to criticize jets flown to climate conference

CLAIM: Photo shows “the 400 jets used by #COP26Glasgow attendees to get to a conference on reducing emissions and fossil fuels.”

THE FACTS: The image of parked jets was taken in New Orleans during the 2013 Super Bowl, not at the

— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia contributed this report.

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Ads raising awareness about strokes in kids are not related to vaccines

CLAIM: A bus advertisement on knowing the warning signs of strokes in children is related to COVID-19 vaccines.

THE FACTS: In the days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared a smaller dose of the Pfizer vaccine to be used by children ages 5 to 11, social media users shared a photo of a bus advertisement from Canada to spread false information about COVID-19 vaccines and children. Posts that circulated online included a photo of the advertisement, which read, “Kids have strokes too, know the signs,” along with a caption that falsely suggested that the government was somehow forecasting a wave of strokes among children once they become vaccinated against COVID-19. However, the advertisement, which was featured on nine buses in Ontario, has no link to the vaccines. A Canadian charitable foundation, Achieving Beyond Brain Injury, placed the ads to educate the public about strokes among children during Pediatric Stroke Awareness month in May. The foundation’s co-founders, Nadine Vermeulen and Rebecca DiManno, started the organization after their sons suffered strokes at 10 and 14 years old. Vermeulen said the bus ads had nothing to do with the COVID-19 vaccines. “It was heartbreaking that what we are trying to do and spread awareness has been turned into something that we feel we have to defend ourselves against,” she said about the claims on social media. Vermeulen said her organization had not said that strokes are common, they only wanted to make parents aware. “Neither of us knew that kids could have strokes until our kids did,” Vermeulen told The Associated Press. “There are different signs you can look for that can help save a child’s life.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not list stroke as a side effect of the COVID-19 vaccines. Millions of children ages 12 to 17 have received the Pfizer vaccine and there have been no significant reports of strokes. “None of the mRNA vaccines that are under investigation for children are associated with that,” Dr. Kevin J. Downes, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, said of strokes. This week, American children aged 5 to 11

— Associated Press writer Beatrice Dupuy in New York contributed this report.

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Soccer match video edited to add anti-Biden chant

CLAIM: Video shows crowd chanting “F--- Joe Biden” during soccer game.

THE FACTS: A video clip of a 2016 soccer game that circulated on TikTok was altered to add audio from a country music concert where the audience chanted a profanity in reference to President Joe Biden. On TikTok, users can take the sound from one clip and play it over the visuals from another. Audio from an Aaron Lewis concert replaced the original sound of the soccer match. In the concert clip, the country singer, the former frontman of the metal band Staind, led his audience in the anti-Biden chant. A YouTube video shows Lewis leading a chant that sounds the same at a Sept. 25 concert in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The footage in the soccer clip shows MetLife stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, packed with fans watching Chile and Argentina compete in the

— Associated Press writer Arijeta Lajka in New York contributed this report.

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